Mule ducks were force-fed for 12 d to determine whether or not signs of apoptosis could occur during the development of the hepatic steatosis induced by the huge quantities of corn ingested twice daily by the birds. Presence of apoptosis in hepatocytes was assessed through the measurements of increased activities of capsase-3 +-7, -8, and -9. From d 0 of the force-feeding period until d 8, activities of the different caspases remained at a low level. On the contrary, at d 10 and d 12, activities of all measured caspases dramatically increased, indicating that apoptosis occurred at this stage, which corresponds to the time of accumulation of large quantities of lipids in the hepatic cells.The melting level of the liver issued from force-feeding ("foie gras") during cooking is a point of interest for processors because it could degrade the quality of this delicate dish. In this study, we used the levels of caspases activities to improve the predictability of foie gras cooking, in addition to other parameters usually used, such as its weight or lipid content. From this improvement, we suggest that part of the variability of melting during cooking of fatty livers could reside in more or less intense activity of hepatic proteases.